ibex
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ibex
Borrowed into English from Latin around 1600–10
Explanation
An ibex is a wild mountain goat with long, curved horns. If you visit the European Alps or the northwestern Himalayas, you might be lucky enough to see an ibex. Ibex is a Latin word, probably borrowed from an older language such as Iberian or Aquitanian. Several species of goats fall into this category, including the Ethiopian, Spanish, and Siberian ibex varieties. All of these animals weigh more than 200 pounds, live up to 20 years, and are distinguished by the male ibex's backwards-curving horns. If you live in North America, you're most likely to encounter an ibex at the zoo or on an exotic species ranch.
Vocabulary lists containing ibex
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The Turtle of Michigan
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
During an early ascent, Lubin Godin found an Alpine ibex resting above a sea of clouds.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025
The engravings, which depict animals such as camels, ibex, equids, gazelles, and aurochs, include 130 highly detailed and life-sized figures, some reaching up to 3 meters long and more than 2 meters tall.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2025
When morning came, we lingered in bright sunshine above the clouds, watching ibex grazing nearby.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2020
The ancient carvings date back about 8,000 to 9,000 years and depict hunters using dogs to overwhelm prey such as gazelles and ibex before they fired killing blows with bows and arrows.
From New York Times ● Nov. 20, 2017
“I held it in my hands! I looked at the drawings, page by page. I remember each one: the lakes, the mountains, the ibex, that funny-looking mountain squirrel.”
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
The hunters in Iran’s Zagros mountains who protected and managed wild ibexes, for example, had no idea that their actions would lead to the domestication of the goat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Amit Eshel witnessed this tussle between two male Nubian ibexes in Israel's Zin Desert.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2023
Among the rock drawings are many of ibexes, but also some that have been interpreted as depicting the tablets of the commandments or other references from the Bible.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2021
Decades ago, conservationists moved some ibexes, a type of wild goat, from the Middle East to mate with a dwindling population in what was then Czechoslovakia.
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2018
If you must, think of ibexes instead, a fierce and agile type of goat with great spiraling horns.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
